Adding server side code to angular-cli project conflicts with node typings

Question

When adding a basic express.js configuration (using TypeScript) to an Angular2 project that was initialized with angular-cli ng new [project-name], I need to add the following typing to compile the express server using gulp:

typings install --ambient --save node

This adds the following line to typings/browser.d.ts and typings/main.d.ts

/// <reference path="browser/ambient/node/index.d.ts" />
and
/// <reference path="main/ambient/node/index.d.ts" />

In the express server.ts file I can add a reference to main instead of browser to keep TypeScript happy

/// <reference path="../typings/main.d.ts" />

But when I leave the node typing reference in the browser.d.ts file, the ng build command will fail:

Build failed.
The Broccoli Plugin: [BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler] failed with:
Error: Typescript found the following errors:
  C:/Users/user123/Downloads/my-catalog-master/my-catalog-master/tmp/broccoli_type_script_compiler-input_base_path-7VFCE2dg.tmp/0/src/typings.d.ts (3, 13): Subsequent variable declarations must have the same type.  Variable 'module' must be of type 'NodeModule', but here has type '{ id: string; }'.
    at BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler._doIncrementalBuild (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\broccoli-typescript.js:115:19)
    at BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler.build (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\broccoli-typescript.js:43:10)
    at C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\index.js:152:21
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$tryCatch (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1036:16)
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$invokeCallback (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1048:17)
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$publish (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1019:11)
    at lib$rsvp$asap$$flush (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1198:9)
    at nextTickCallbackWith0Args (node.js:420:9)
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:349:13)

The broccoli plugin was instantiated at: 
    at BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler.Plugin (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\node_modules\broccoli-plugin\index.js:10:31)
    at BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler.CachingWriter [as constructor] (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\broccoli-caching-writer\index.js:21:10)
    at BroccoliTypeScriptCompiler (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\broccoli-typescript.js:27:10)
    at Angular2App._getTsTree (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\angular2-app.js:280:18)
    at Angular2App._buildTree (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\angular2-app.js:101:23)
    at new Angular2App (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\broccoli\angular2-app.js:42:23)
    at module.exports (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\angular-cli-build.js:6:10)
    at Class.module.exports.Task.extend.setupBroccoliBuilder (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\models\builder.js:55:19)
    at Class.module.exports.Task.extend.init (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\models\builder.js:89:10)
    at new Class (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\core-object\core-object.js:18:12)
    at Class.module.exports.Task.extend.run (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\tasks\build.js:15:19)
    at C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\lib\commands\build.js:32:24
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$tryCatch (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1036:16)
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$invokeCallback (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1048:17)
    at lib$rsvp$$internal$$publish (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1019:11)
    at lib$rsvp$asap$$flush (C:\Users\user123\Downloads\my-catalog-master\my-catalog-master\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\angular-cli\node_modules\rsvp\dist\rsvp.js:1198:9)

I could delete the line for now in browser.d.ts so it starts working again but that's not ideal when re-installing typings. I'm currently using angular-cli v1.0.0-beta.0

Answer 1

The error about .spec.ts file. When i update

'@angular/testing';

code like

'@angular/core/testing';

my error resolved;

import {
  describe,
  ddescribe,
  expect,
  iit,
  it
} from '@angular/testing';
import {Hero} from './hero';

describe('Hero', () => {
  it('should create an instance', () => {
    expect(new Hero()).toBeTruthy();
  });
});

Answer 2

I was able to resolve this by changing src/typings.d.ts

From

declare var module: { id: string };

To

declare var module: NodeModule;

And making sure that I had typings for Node 4 via typings install node-4 --ambient --save.

Answer 3

The actual error originates from the src/typings.d.ts file. Angular-cli creates this typings.d.ts file with the following content:

/// <reference path="../typings/browser.d.ts" />
declare var module: { id: string };

Removing this file solved the problem and the application is still working.